Padded foil for watercraft

ABSTRACT

A hydrofoil for use with watercraft may have at least one padded component. The padding material may be applied to at least a portion of the component. The padding material has increased resiliency compared to a structural material of the component. The component may be a mast, a fuselage or a wing for example.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority and benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/497,082, filed on Nov. 7, 2016, entitled “PADDED FOIL FOR WATERCRAFT,” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE PRESENT DISCLOSURE

This disclosure generally relates to modifications to a hydrofoil for use with a watercraft, such as a surfboard, windsurf board, kite board, or the like. Specifically, one or more portions of the foil assembly may have a layer of resilient material as padding.

BACKGROUND

Hydrofoils are wings that are adapted to function in water as opposed to air, but share many similar attributes. Notably, a hydrofoil provides a significant amount of lift, even at relatively slow speeds. Accordingly, the benefits of a hydrofoil may be extended to any number of applications involving movement through the water. For example, nearly any recreational pursuit that involves riding a board may take advantage of a hydrofoil, including kitesurfing, wind surfing, stand up paddle boarding, wake boarding, water skiing, tow-in surfing, conventional surfing and others. Despite these advantages, use of hydrofoil wings nevertheless may involve certain risks or inconveniences. This disclosure addresses these and other problems, as will be appreciated in view of the following discussion.

SUMMARY

As will be described in detail below, this disclosure includes a hydrofoil component for use with watercraft. A padding material is secured to at least a portion of the component. The component may be a mast, a fuselage or a wing. The padding material may have increased resiliency compared to a structural material of the component.

In one aspect, the component the padding material substantially covers exposed surface area of the component. Alternatively, the padding material may be applied to a selected area, such as a leading edge of the component. The padding material may be applied to a recess formed in the structural material of the component.

This disclosure also includes a hydrofoil for use with watercraft. The hydrofoil may have components including a mast, a fuselage and a wing. A padding material may be secured to at least a portion of at least one of the components, wherein the padding material has increased resiliency compared to a structural material of the component.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is schematic diagram of a watercraft having a hydrofoil according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is schematic diagram of hydrofoil components according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is schematic cross-sectional diagram of a padding material secured to a hydrofoil component according to an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is schematic cross-sectional diagram of a padding material secured to the leading edge of a hydrofoil component according to an embodiment.

FIG. 5 is schematic cross-sectional diagram of a padding material secured to the leading and trailing edges of a hydrofoil component according to an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

At the outset, it is to be understood that this disclosure is not limited to particularly exemplified materials, architectures, routines, methods or structures as such may vary. Thus, although a number of such options, similar or equivalent to those described herein, can be used in the practice or embodiments of this disclosure, the preferred materials and methods are described herein.

It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments of this disclosure only and is not intended to be limiting.

The detailed description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is intended as a description of exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure and is not intended to represent the only exemplary embodiments in which the present disclosure can be practiced. The term “exemplary” used throughout this description means “serving as an example, instance, or illustration,” and should not necessarily be construed as preferred or advantageous over other exemplary embodiments. The detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understanding of the exemplary embodiments of the specification. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the exemplary embodiments of the specification may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the novelty of the exemplary embodiments presented herein.

For purposes of convenience and clarity only, directional terms, such as top, bottom, left, right, up, down, over, above, below, beneath, rear, back, and front, may be used with respect to the accompanying drawings or chip embodiments. These and similar directional terms should not be construed to limit the scope of the disclosure in any manner.

In this specification and in the claims, it will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “connected to” or “coupled to” another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly connected to” or “directly coupled to” another element, there are no intervening elements present. Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one having ordinary skill in the art to which the disclosure pertains. Finally, as used in this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a, “an” and “the” include plural referents unless the content clearly dictates otherwise.

To help illustrate aspects of the disclosure, reference is made to FIG. 1, which shows one embodiment of a board 10 that may be equipped with a hydrofoil 12. Again, virtually any craft that may be ridden or propelled through water may benefit from these techniques. As shown in greater detail, hydrofoil 12 generally includes a mast 14 that extend from the board 10 (not shown in this view) to a fuselage 16. The length of mast 14 may be varied to alter handling characteristics as known in the art. Generally, a longer mast allows for the board to be lifted relatively higher from the surface of the water when the hydrofoil is “flying” and generating sufficient lift. As a result, the board is isolated from the surface conditions, including chop and other disturbances. However, a longer mast may be more difficult to control for the rider, such that a relatively shorter mast be beneficial, particularly for those learning. In turn, a fore wing 18 and an aft wing 20 may be mounted to the fuselage. As implied by the names, the fore and aft wings provide the lift generated by hydrofoil 12. Many different designs and/or configurations of wings may be employed, any of which may be utilized when implementing the techniques of this disclosure.

Conventionally, most attempts to employ hydrofoils have centered around improving performance of the craft with which they are being used. As such, most applications have attempted to minimize the drag presented by the hydrofoil. Accordingly, the prior art has designed hydrofoils that exhibit hard, essentially unyielding surfaces. At least partly, this is a function of the structural materials used to construct the hydrofoil components, which may be metals, rigid plastics and/or composites (e.g., carbon fiber) that have sufficient structural integrity to withstand the developed forces. Therefore, there are significant safety and usability consequences. Most notably, one of the key benefits associated with the use of a hydrofoil is reduced drag. Under normal circumstances, this increased efficiency is desirable. However, when a user loses control of a craft employing a hydrofoil, it is capable of moving large distances in unpredictable directions before coming to a rest. During this period, the user runs a risk of injury from being hit with the hydrofoil, particularly given the relatively sharp leading and trailing edges of the wings and mast. Furthermore, even when not posing a direct danger, the hard surface of a hydrofoil can be a nuisance. For example, the hydrofoil extends a significant distance under the water, making it harder to visualize and judge its location, with concurrent increase in the chance that the user will kick it with a leg or foot or hit it with another body part. Even transporting the hydrofoil craft presents the possibility that the foil will scratch or damage other surfaces.

To address these drawbacks, this disclosure is directed to a hydrofoil for a water craft that features one or more padded components. For example, any one or combination of mast 14, fuselage 16, fore wing 18 and aft wing 20 may be padded with a material having greater resiliency than the underlying structural material. FIG. 3 schematically illustrates a cross section of a hydrofoil component, such as a wing, mast and/or fuselage. In the depicted embodiment, the core 22 has a profile typical of a wing or mast, with a leading edge and trailing edge as indicated. A thin layer of padding material 24 may be used to cover any portion, including the entire surface as shown. The padding 24 may be attached to the hydrofoil component in any suitable manner, including with an appropriate adhesive. In some applications, it may be desirable to wrap the hydrofoil component with a seam of the padding material 24 at the trailing edge as shown in this view, however other configurations may also be used with different seam locations. In other embodiments, padding material 24 may be provided as an intact “tube” that is stretched to fit over the component, may be heat shrunk or the like. In yet other embodiments, the padding material may be sprayed over the hydrofoil component.

As discussed above, padding material 24 is selected to provide greater resilience than the material used to form the hydrofoil component being padded. The thickness of the padding material may also be varied to provide a desired degree of protection. Although the padding material should be more resilient that the structural component, a balance may be struck with regard to abrasion resistance and other durability characteristics while still making the surface of the hydrofoil component more compliant. One type of material that is suitable for the padding material is a closed cell foam, such as polyethylene foam, neoprene foam, rubber foam, polypropylene foam, or other similar materials. As an illustration only, and without limitation, the padding material may be ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) having an appropriate durometer, such as in the range of 50-70 Shore A durometer for a more durable padding, or in the range of 30-50 Shore A durometer for a more compliant surface. Also as an example only, the padding material 24 may have a thickness in the range of about 0.5-3 mm, such as 1 mm.

In other embodiments, many of the benefits associated with padding one or more of the hydrofoil components may be achieved by applying the resilient material to selected portions of the component, rather than covering the entire surface. For example, FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a hydrofoil component, such as a wing, mast and/or fuselage similar to that shown in FIG. 3. Since the hydrofoil predominantly travels in a forward direction, it may be desirable to provide padding along the leading edge(s) as opposed to the trailing edge(s). In the embodiment shown, the hydrofoil component 26 may be manufactured with a stepped recess in an area, such as by milling, extrusion, molding or any other suitable technique, to which padding 28 is then applied. The recess may have a dimension that closely corresponds to the thickness of the padding used as shown to provide a smooth transition. Such a configuration facilitates the manufacturing process and allows for more secure attachment of the padding. Although shown with padding applied to only the leading edge in FIG. 4, the recess may be provided at both leading and trailing edges of hydrofoil component 30 as shown in FIG. 5, with padding 32 adhered to the areas defined by the recesses. In other embodiments, a similar technique may be used to provide a padded area at any desired portion of the hydrofoil component.

It will be appreciated that the addition of the padding material may increase the overall drag of the hydrofoil to some degree, but in many circumstances this may be an acceptable trade off to obtain the benefits noted above. Particularly, it should be appreciated that the hydrofoil efficiencies may be obtained at relatively slow board speeds, rendering the increased drag less important. Thus, particularly for those learning or less familiar with hydrofoiling, the techniques of this disclosure may be followed to provide a hydrofoil with one or more padded components to increase user safety and convenience.

Although the present invention has been described in accordance with the embodiments shown, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that there could be variations to the embodiments and those variations would be within the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, many modifications may be made by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. 

1. A hydrofoil component for use with watercraft, comprising a padding material secured to at least a portion of the component, wherein the component is at least one of a mast, a fuselage and a wing and wherein the padding material has increased resiliency compared to a structural material of the component.
 2. The hydrofoil component of claim 1, wherein the component comprises a mast.
 3. The hydrofoil component of claim 1, wherein the component comprises a fuselage.
 4. The hydrofoil component of claim 1, wherein the component comprises a fore wing.
 5. The hydrofoil component of claim 1, wherein the component comprises an aft wing.
 6. The hydrofoil component of claim 1, wherein the padding material substantially covers exposed surface area of the component.
 7. The hydrofoil component of claim 1, wherein the padding material is applied to a leading edge of the component.
 8. The hydrofoil component of claim 7, wherein the padding material is applied to a recess formed in the structural material of the component.
 9. A hydrofoil for use with watercraft, comprising components including a mast, a fuselage and a wing, and a padding material secured to at least a portion of at least one of the components, wherein the padding material has increased resiliency compared to a structural material of the component. 